Restart a Heart Day 2018

On 12th October 2018, Adult Student Nurse Holly Galbraith volunteered to participate in ‘Restart a Heart Day’ at University Hospital Wishaw (UHW) while she was on placement there. Restart a Heart day was created with the aim of teaching vital life-saving CPR skills to as many people as possible so more lives are saved. The opportunity to participate was organised by her mentor and resuscitation officers from other NHS hospital sites across Lanarkshire

In preparation for the event, Holly built on the Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) skills she learned from skills classes at the university and practised with her mentor to perfect them. Holly was then assigned to a team of experienced healthcare staff and demonstrated the principles of CPR to children and staff at a local high school. In addition, the team delivered an evening CPR demonstration at a local sports centre and offered drop-in sessions for local people of the community.

Holly said afterwards,

‘I felt both honoured and proud to represent the university at such a worthwhile community event. It was a privilege to have been involved in teaching over 1,200 people the lifesaving skill of CPR and I hope that this day and these sessions will help make a difference to someone’s life as a result ’

The same demonstration was carried out by other volunteers at a local primary school and the main reception areas of the 3 general hospital sites.

As a result of participating in the RAHD event, Holly volunteered to demonstrate CPR with fellow Part 3 student, Nicole Cunningham at the recent UWS Open Day at Lanarkshire Campus Saturday 27th Sept. Nicole added:

“The open day demonstrations allowed us both to develop our graduate attributes as leaders in our communities helping to encourage the future generation of learners and their families the importance of Basic Life Support . “

Several other Year 3 student nurses were also involved in all the Univerity Open Day showcasing the university campus facilities and teaching and learning pedagogies used within the undergraduate curriculum. We would like to thank them all for their help and participation